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Thomas Buchanan Read
Thomas Buchanan Read (March 12, 1822 - May 11, 1872), was an American poet, painter, and sculptor. Michael S. Principe, Read, Thomas Buchanan, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Summer 2007, Pennsylvania State University. Web, Apr. 7, 2013. Life Overview Born in Corner Ketch, Pennsylvania, in 1822, Thomas Buchanan Read both painted and wrote about a fervently patriotic and idealistic subject matter. Befriending famed poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and spending a great deal of his adult life in Italy, Read was a major figure in mid-19th century literary and artistic culture. He produced some of the most recognizable Civil War images and verse in multiple renditions of his "Sheridan’s Ride" and lyrically captured the aesthetic quality of Pennsylvania’s geography in The New Pastoral. He died in 1872 in New York City. Read was a portrait-painter, and lived much abroad. He wrote a prose romance, The Pilgrims of the Great St. Bernard, and several books of poetry, including The New Pastoral, The House by the Sea, Sylvia, and A Summer Story. Some of the shorter pieces included in these, e.g., "Sheridan's Ride," "Drifting," and "The Closing Scene," have great merit.John William Cousin, "Read, Thomas Buchanan," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 315. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 21, 2018. He was considered a leading American poet before his death. Youth Read was born on March 12, 1822, in Corner Ketch, Pennsylvania. He received only an elementary education; the sudden death of his father led to an abusive, cruel, and short-lived apprenticeship to a local tailor. By age 15, Read had worked in Philadelphia under a grocer and tobacconist, and was residing in Cincinnati with his sister. There, he painted signs and learned the art of sculpture as an apprentice to Shobal Veil Clevenger. Throughout his teen years, Read never received a formal education, as a lack of money and natural ability in the fine arts rendered the idea of schooling impossible and fruitless. Career As a young adult in Cincinnati, Read set up his own studio with the help of horticulturalist, millionaire, and patron Nicholas Longworth, gaining national recognition in 1840 for his portrait of Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison and publishing his 1st collection of poetry in the Cincinnati Chronicle and Times. In 1841, Read moved to Boston and befriended poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and poet-painter Washington Allston. The young artist was greatly influenced and encouraged by these 2 artists’ patriotic style and thematic content, as seen in his 1st and only novel, Paul Redding: A tale of the Brandywine, a melodrama set on Chester county’s Brandywine river, published during this time. Also, in 1843, Read married an Ohio woman, Mary J. Pratt, with whom he had 3 children. Throughout the late 1840's and 1850's, spending the bulk of his time in Italy, Read established himself as one of the world’s leading artistic and literary voices. The great number of commissions he received prompted him to write to patron and friend James Claghorn that “success has at length had begun to dawn upon him.” A New Pastoral, one of Read’s more notable works, was completed in Florence in 1854. Unfortunately, the death of his wife and 2 of his children from cholera in 1855 undermined the rest of Read’s time in Italy. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Read moved back to the United States and enlisted in the Union army. The literary work of his tenure as a soldier, The Wagoner of the Alleghenies, “The Oath,” and “The Defenders” were popular readings among Northern lecturers, as their pro-Union sentiments and unwavering sense of patriotism inspired the masses. “Sheridan’s Ride,” Read’s most famous work, was also published during his time of service to the government, in A Summer Story, Sheridan's Ride, and other poems, 1865. When the war ended, the Union League of Philadelphia commissioned Read to bring his textual design to life in a painting. This life-sized image depicts a stout General Sheridan courageously pushing forward towards Cedar Creek atop his horse, Rienzi, a galloping black stallion. Read also sculpted busts of the General. Having remarried, Read moved back to Italy in 1867 with his new wife, Harriet Dennison. “Always of a genial temperament,” as the New York Times describes the artist in his obituary, Read found favor among the Roman artistic and literary community, adopting a religiously idealistic subject matter. “A Painter’s Dream,” one of the painter’s last works, exemplifies his spiritually thematic venture, as it depicts a Venus figure floating above an artist and aiding him in his muse. Unfortunately, in 1871, Read’s carriage overturned, leaving him badly injured and never able to fully recover. The next year Read left for the United States, dying soon after his arrival in a New York port. He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia.Thomas Buchanan Read, Find a Grave, August 2, 2003. Web, Apr. 7, 2013. Writing In A New Pastoral (1854), a series of 37 textual illuminations, Read offers a romantic vision of Pennsylvania’s countryside, writing that “no lovelier landscape meets the traveller’s eye.” He couples his lyrical blank verse with a story of a family’s journey from middle Pennsylvania to the Mississippi river. “I am at least conscious of having had a religious desire to do a great and good work,” Read wrote about the piece to Claghorn, “something worthy of my country, a national poem which the world will not willingly let die.” As an exemplary piece of Read’s contemporary literary focus, “The Defenders” details the spirit of the Union symbolically through a description of the bald eagle: “True to its native sky, / Still shall our eagle fly,” reads the verse, “Casting his sentinel glances afar, / Though bearing the olive branch / Still in his talons staunch, / Grasping the bolts of the thunders of War!” "Sheridan's Ride" (1865), Reid's most famous work, details how General Philip Sheridan marshals the beaten Union troops at the Battle of Cedar Creek in Virginia and leads them to victory.[ Works by Thomas Buchanan Read], '' Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature'', Answers.com. Web, Feb. 22, 2018. The poem’s patriotic theme and the general’s heroism encouraged audiences throughout the North. “The affrighted air with a shudder bore,” Read writes, “Telling the battle was on once more, And Sheridan twenty miles away.” Publications Poetry * Poems. Boston: William D. Ticknor, 1847; London: Delf & Trubner, 1852 **enlarged edition. Philadelphia: Parry & M'millan, 1855 ** new and enlarged edition. (2 volumes), Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1866. Volume I, Volume II. * Lays and Ballads. Philadelphia: G.S. Appleton, 1849; New York: D. Appleton, 1849. *''The Onward Age: An anniversary poem. Cincinnati, OH: Young Men's Mercantile Library Association, 1852. * ''The New Pastoral. Philadelphia: Parry & M'millan, 1855. * The House by the Sea: A poem. Philadelphia: Parry & McMillan, 1855. * Sylvia; or, The last shepherd: An eclogue, and other poems. Philadelphia: Parry & McMillan, 1857. * Rural Poems. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, 1857. * The Wagoner of the Alleghanies: A poem of the days of 'seventy-six. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1862. *''A Summer Story, Sheridan's Ride, and other poems. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1865. *''The Poetical Works of Thomas Buchanan Read. (3 volumes), Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1886. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III. *''Good Samaritans: A poem.'' Cincinnati, OH: R. Clarke, 1867. *''Drifting'' (illustrated by Lizbeth Bullock Humphrey). Philsadelphia & London: J.B. Lippincott, 1880. *''The Poetical Works of T. Buchanan Read. (1 volume), Philadelphia:J.B. Lippincott, 1883.The Poetical Works of T. Buchanan Read (1883), Internet Archive. Web. Apr. 7, 2013. *Christine'' (illusttrated by Frederick Dielman). Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1882 1883. *''Sheridan's Ride'' (illustrated). Philadelphia: J. McGee, 1884. *''Gems from T.B. Read's Poetical Works'' (edited by Lizbeth Bullock Humphrey & Frederick Dielman). Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1884. *''The Closing Scene'' (illustrated). London: J. Stark, 1887. Plays *''A Vision of Death: An extract''. Philadelphia: G.S. Appleton, 1849. *''The Alchemist's Daughter: A dramatic sketch''. Philadelphia: G.S. Appleton, 1849. Fiction *''Paul Redding: A tale of the Brandywine. Boston: A Tompkins & B.B. Mussey, Redding, 1845. * ''The Pilgrims of the Great St. Bernard. Philadelphia: 1853 Juvenile *''Sheridan's Ride''. New York: Greenwlllow, 1993. Edited * The Female Poets of America With portraits, biographical notices, and specimens of their writings. Philadelphia: E.H. Butler, 1848. Letters *"Letters of Thomas Buchanan Read" (edited by Alice E. Smith). Ohio State archaeological and historical quarterly, Volume 46, 68-80. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Thomas Buchanan Read, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 30, 2013. See also *List of U.S. poets References *"Read, Thomas Buchanan." American Authors 1600–1900. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1938. *Dickason, David Howard. The Daring Young Men; The Story of the American Pre-Raphaelites. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1953, 26–32. Web, September 7, 2008. Notes External links ;Poems *"Sheridan's Ride" in the Yale Book of American Verse. *Thomas Buchanan Read in An American Anthology 1787-1900: "Drifting," "Lines to a Blind Girl," "The Closing Scene" ;Books *Works by Thomas Buchanan Read at Internet Archive ;About *Works of Thomas Buchanan Read in the Houghton Mifflin Chronology of U.S. Literature *Read, Thomas Buchanan at the Pennsylvania Center for the Book. * Category:1822 births Category:1872 deaths Category:American poets Category:American painters Category:Portrait artists Category:People from Chester County, Pennsylvania Category:Writers from Pennsylvania Category:Artists from Pennsylvania Category:American expatriates in Italy Category:Deaths from pneumonia Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets